The Owatonna Boys Cross Country team has faced many ups and downs in the last two years with COVID-19 and hopes it will get back to normal this upcoming year. Athletes and coaches were forced to take many precautions due to COVID-19. 

Coach David Chatelaine, “We were not able to have the whole team together as well be separate into pods, we had to figure out the meets because of limited entries and we only ran against one or two teams at a time after that we have to wear mask all time  and kept distance which was hard and the season was shorten.” 

Owatonna’s season this year has been full of rising competition as the COVID-19 protocols start to diminish. The boys have been off to a good start placing well in big meets such as; St. Olaf, Mayo invitational and Griak invitational. Boys Cross country moves up from 1AA to 1AAA this year. 

The Minnesota State High School League decided to add a third class for this cross country season. Moving up a class eliminates the smaller competition class. Captain Connor Ginskey said, “We were moved up into the biggest section this year, so this year’s competition will be Lakeville South or North.” This means by moving up into 1AAA this year shall be a challenge for the team. 

The Huskies are hoping to come out as Big 9 champs like they have done in previous years and hopefully make the state meet as well. The next meet is the Big 9 meet on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 2:55 p.m.  and Section 1AAA meet on Oct. 28 at 2:55 p.m. as both meets are held at Brooktree Golf Course.

As the conclusion of the Big 9 meet at Brooktree. The Huskies repeated as Big 9 champs but then fell short at the Section 1AAA meet, as the huskies  placed third place as a team and did not qualify for the state meet which was a big  goal to achieve.